Download Are You a Murderer?

SERMONS
BY
ADOLPHE MONOD,
PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT MONTAUBAN.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH,
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM HICKEY, M.A.,
RECTOR OF MULRANKIN, DIOCESE OF FERNS, IRELAND.
LONDON
:
JAMES NISBET AND CO., BERNERS-STREET.
1849.
1
SERMON III.
_______
EXODUS XX. 13.
“Thou shalt not kill.”
THE selection of this text somewhat surprises you. You think that such a
subject would be more appropriate in a forest of evil repute, before a band
of robbers, than in a house of prayer, in presence of a congregation composed of whatever is most decorous and respectable in society. How can it
be supposed that among those whom I now address there could be any individuals capable of transgressing this commandment, “Thou shalt not
kill?”
I can easily conceive your surprise. Yet do not judge hastily. Many unlikely things are however found to be true when attentively examined. Then
let us examine them. You will afterwards be yourselves the judges. As to
me, I shall judge no man; I shall individualize no one. I shall only put questions to you. I leave it to each of you to answer for himself, in his conscience, and before God.
Let us observe, in the first place, that there are two ways of breaking the
sixth commandment. It may be broken according to its true and actual
meaning; it may be broken also in a spiritual and more enlarged sense; two
transgressions, very different in the eyes of men, who see the first, but do
not perceive the second, though both are equally deserving of condemnation before God, who knows the secret workings of the heart, as well as
those that are visible to men. This principle has been laid down by Jesus
Christ respecting a particular commandment, whence it is easy to extend
his meaning to all the others, “Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust
after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart.”1 There is
the idolatry of the knees and there is the idolatry of the heart; there is the
lying of the lips and the lying of the heart. There is also killing according to
the letter, and killing according to the spirit.
For this reason, then, we have proposed in this discourse the general
question: Have you broken the sixth commandment? this divides itself into
two separate questions: Have you transgressed the letter of the sixth commandment? Have you transgressed its spirit? We are about to examine each
of them in turn.
Have you transgressed the letter of the sixth commandment?
1
Matt. v. 28.
2
Have you killed? And in the first place, has anyone here present killed a
man with his own hand? It is not absolutely impossible, that there may be
present here a man to whom that may have happened; not indeed in the
manner which the world condemns, and the laws of society permit, but in
that other mode of which the laws take no cognizance, and which the world
tolerates, even though it approves not of it—I mean in a duel. Would such a
man be a murderer in your opinion? He would not be an assassin undoubtedly, since he attacked his antagonist face to face, prepared for the combat;
but would he be a murderer? Is a man a man? and is killing killing?
Do you reply that duels are seldom fatal? That may be true, but there is
the hazard of killing; and even if there be no fatal result, what is done?
Blood is shed. Is not this half murder? is it not written: “The blood is the
life?”2 And is not shedding blood synonymous in every language with killing? If this does not satisfy you, go to your philosophers, for instance, Jean
Jacques Rousseau, who thus answers a duellist who pleaded in his excuse,
that he only fought until the first blood was drawn.3 The first blood! and
what will you do with that blood, ferocious brute, will you drink it?”
If you have never fought a duel—and perhaps circumstances alone have
prevented you from doing so, or if you belong to the sex which does not
fight, have you approved of those who have done so? The Spirit of God
teaches us, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,4 that to have
pleasure in them that do evil things is worse than to commit them,5 a sentiment expressed in other terms by a very intellectual woman, who said, that
“She hated bad maxims even more than bad actions;”6 which is very just,
because a bad action may arise from temporary allurement, while a bad
maxim supposes corruption rooted in the heart. Have you countenanced
duelling? Have you tolerated it? Have you thought that there are certain
circumstances, certain professions in which it is not criminal? Have you
failed in the duty of protesting against all cases, all forms of a custom
which is a combination equally detestable and absurd, of weakness and
courage, of barbarism and politeness, which for a word or gesture plunges,
under the forms of good breeding, and as if for amusement, a wife into
mourning, a family into despair, and which, even if it does not produce
those bloody fruits, at least, and as if to compensate for not having caused
them, shows clearly, and boasts in letters of blood, that it could have produced such results. In short, has society into which duelling has been able
2
Deut. xii. 23.
The then usual mode of duelling in France with swords is to be understood.
4
Ver. 32.
5
The verse in our version does not directly express this: but the Greek commentators
understood the passage in the sense in which M. Monod applies it.
6
Madame Necker.
3
3
to force its way, and in which it has established its sway, and made the
laws, civilisation, common sense, and natural affection subordinate to it,
and at last has passed as a matter of necessity, of honour, and of virtue; has
society, I ask, violated the letter of the sixth commandment?
Have you killed? killing is not alone causing the immediate death of a
man; it is also occasioning it after a week, a year, or even longer; it is not
only taking away, it is shortening life. Have you shortened the days of any
person? Have you, in the heat of a dispute, or in the excitement of passion,
or in cold blood, caused a wife, a child, a servant, a labourer, to suffer from
those furious blows, or from that continued ill-treatment which wears out
the animal frame, by injuring its functions and undermining its vigour?
Have you taken advantage of the wants of the poor and the weakness of
children to overload them with excessive toil, causing them to drag on a
sickly existence, and then to languish and fade and die by inches, that they
may minister to your profit and your pride? Have you by your avarice, by
your harshness, by your injustice, oppressed an inferior, discouraged industry, impeded the success of a family, deprived a father of employment, a
mother of sleep, and children of their bread? Have you led a companion, a
friend, to plunge into the excesses of the table, or into the lusts of the flesh,
which have injured and perhaps ruined his health forever? Have you, in destroying a reputation, in causing domestic trouble, in breaking a tender
heart by your coldness, in repaying benefits with ingratitude, implanted in
the bosom of some individual, perhaps of one near to you, a wife, a father,
or a mother, one of those deep-seated and incurable sorrows, which overwhelm life, break down the strength of the body, and cause it to descend
prematurely to the grave?
I might urge these questions farther. And is it not a mode of killing to let
a human creature die? Is it not a mode of shortening a man’s days to omit
the means of prolonging them when you have the power of using them?
Have you by refusal, by neglect, by parsimony, left the Lazarus at your
door, whom the crumbs from your table might have nourished, to perish of
disease or misery? Have you dissipated in pleasures, frivolous if not criminal, the means which might have given liberty to the captive, health to the
sick, and food to the famished, whose cries of misery were ascending to
heaven, simultaneously with the mirthful sounds of your balls and concerts?
Have you killed? Killing is not only killing another, it is also killing oneself. Have you abridged the term of your own days? Have you exhausted
the treasure of your health and strength in impurity, in intemperance, in voluptuousness, in the immoderate pursuit of any object, or even in any excessive toil undertaken for your own pleasure, and not enjoined by duty?
I should never conclude if I were to enter into the details of the different
4
modes by which the sixth commandment may be broken. Consider those
which I have pointed out, add to them many similar ones which I leave to
yourselves to find out; then reflect deeply on this question:—
Have you transgressed the letter of the sixth commandment? Is there anyone here who has transgressed it? is there anyone here who has not transgressed it? I judge not; I do not pronounce on any individual, I only put the
question. I leave to each of you the task of answering for himself.
Have you violated the spirit of the sixth commandment?
I might at once say that you have done so, if you have intentionally broken any other commandment whatsoever, even the most different from the
sixth; for example, that which forbids covetousness. This assertion surprises you. Alas! the Word of God always does so. “Whosoever shall keep the
whole law,” says St. James, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
What a paradox! think you. But proceed; this paradox will be soon explained by a very simple and yet, upon the whole, a very profound consideration. “For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.
Now if thou commitest no adultery, yet if thou killest, thou art become a
transgressor of the Law.”7
Let me illustrate the apostle’s meaning by a familiar comparison. A father says to his son, My son, you must this day do two things for me; you
must work in my vineyard and deliver a message for me. The son replies,
Father, I will not deliver your message, but I will work in your vineyard,—
and he goes there. Now I shall put this question to you, Does the son obey
his father’s command by labouring in the vineyard? According to the letter
he does; but according to the spirit? He obeys with the hands; but does he
obey with the heart? He does what his father commanded; but does he do
so because his father commanded him? No, for in that case he would also
have done the second thing which his father had equally enjoined. Why
then does he obey him in the first instance? Evidently because his father’s
command is agreeable to his own pleasure. If he felt any repugnance to
obey it, he would, as he did in the second case, have refused obedience; and
if he should subsequently experience any disinclination to labour in the
vineyard, he will refuse it too, in its turn. From the first moment, then, he
rebels in spirit. He only pleases himself, and is disobedient to his father,
even when he seems to obey him. By disregarding one of his commandments he disobeys the paternal authority; and in disobeying that, he transgresses the spirit of all his father’s commands, even those which he fulfils
according to the letter.
You now may understand the sentiment which I have borrowed from St.
James. You have transgressed the spirit of the sixth commandment, if you
7
James ii. 11.
5
have deliberately broken any other commandment whatever. For instance,
if you have coveted; why have you not killed? Is it because God has forbidden it? No, for in that case you would also have refrained from covetousness, which God has equally forbidden. Why then have you not killed?
Because murder is forbidden by the laws of your country, or by your own
interest, or by the force of public opinion, or by your conscience? You are,
then, obeying the laws, your interest, public opinion, or your conscience,
and not God. You disobey him with the semblance of obedience. In disregarding a single commandment of God you reject the authority of God, and
in rejecting the authority of God you reject the spirit of all his commandments, even of those which you observe in the letter.
After this, in order to know if you have violated the spirit of the sixth
commandment, we should only have to inquire if you have wilfully broken
any other commandment, if you have coveted, slandered, borne false testimony, or committed theft?
But let us pass on to a more definite question. Have you violated the
sixth commandment, according to its spirit? I do not now mean indirectly
and through the infraction of another, but directly, and with reference to
itself alone? You have violated the spirit of the sixth commandment, if you
have hated, or cherished in your heart any kindred disposition,—revenge,
jealousy, anger. The Holy Spirit declares by the mouth of St. John, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.”8 But, before we apply to you this
rigid principle, let us be sure that you fully understand it, and let us justify
it by the same reasoning that we have just applied with regard to the principle advanced by St. James.
He who hateth his brother is a murderer in God’s sight, because the feelings to which he yields, if nothing obstructs their influence, may lead him
step by step to lift his arm against his brother, as Cain did against Abel.
Murder is to hatred what the fruit is to the seed; it is its development, its
completion, its last point. “Out of the heart (said our Lord) proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Ask one of those wretched beings who have laid a homicidal hand
on a fellow-creature, and prevail upon him to relate his deplorable history.
He did not all at once reach the height of crime, and he remembers a period
in his life when the mere contemplation of murder would have filled him
with as much horror as you feel this day at the thought of it. Endeavour to
trace the gradations through which he passed until he came to the original
source of his crime. A few days ago he was a fierce conspirator, who constantly revolved in his mind the design of striking the object of his hatred,
but whose hands were yet unstained with the blood of that person. Until he
8
1 John iii. 46.
6
had resolved on committing the terrible deed, he was a deadly foe, secretly
desiring the death of his enemy, but not yet meditating the gratification of
his revenge by a crime. His heart, before it fully admitted the murderous
desire, was abandoned to its passions,—to jealousy, vengeance, hatred, and
other feelings, as yet undefined—and ignorant of the fatal point at which
they were to terminate.
I ask you now, when did this man, whose history you have here, and
who has been thus led from hatred to the desire of vengeance, and from that
desire to the designing of means, and from the designing of means to the
execution of them—become a murderer? In the opinion of man, who only
looks upon the outward appearance, he was only so when he committed the
murder; but, in the judgment of the Lord, who “looketh upon the heart,”9
was he a murderer before he committed the deed? was he a murderer an
hour previously to the deed of blood, when posted on the path of his victim,
his eye watchful, his ear stretched, his weapon ready, he was awaiting the
fatal moment? Was he a murderer when his mind first conceived the confused and undefined notion of the murder? Was he a murderer when he secretly wished for the death of his enemy and regarded him with murderous
looks? Was he a murderer when he cherished against him a vague feeling
of jealousy or of antipathy, which led him gradually into the path, of which
he himself saw not the issue? And if death, if any unforeseen obstacle had
arrested him when he was plotting the death of his foe, or thirsting for it, or
fostering hatred, was he not already, in the sight of God, what he was afterwards to become in the sight of man if he had lived and been able to execute his purpose? Yes; according to sound philosophy, agreeably with the
Word of God, this man was a murderer from the time when he began to
hate his neighbour; and whoever hates his neighbour is a murderer like him
in the eyes of God, “who understands our thoughts afar off.” He is a murderer from the first in spirit; and he may become so in deed if circumstances second his hate and favour its development. A man may become an assassin, who today is well-disposed and who would shudder at the very
thought of such a thing. I make this remark among a nation who have furnished more examples than any other of this dangerous tendency; among a
people who but fifty years since had terrible experience of what our natural
passions may produce, when the curb of the laws and of public opinion is
removed; among a people who are justly reputed to have the most effective
police in the universe; and yet in periods of disorder and revolution have
produced men of blood by hundreds, in their state of terrorism, who had
previously perhaps been well-disposed, humane, and virtuous perhaps, according to the world.
9
1 Sam. xvi. 7.
7
Let us acknowledge then with St. John: “That whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer;” and let us understand this profound saying of our
Lord: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of the old time, thou shalt
not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I
say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca,
shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall
be in danger of hell fire.”10
In pursuing this principle, in order to know if you have violated the spirit
of the sixth commandment, it is sufficient to analyse this question: have
you hated? I do not address it only to those furious men who exhibit in their
demeanour and language the clear manifestations of vengeance and hatred;
I address it to all. Have you hated? Hated! I? you exclaim, how can you ask
such a question? Is it not obvious, from my language and conduct, that I
entertain the tenderest feelings for my friends, and benevolence towards all
men? I wish with my whole heart that I could subscribe to the testimony
which you give of yourself. But faithful to the spirit of this address, I must
examine and interrogate you. Do you hate?
I take it for granted that you look upon the Holy Scriptures as the Word
of God, and that you consequently believe to be true what it declares as
true, not only if it accords with your personal feelings, but even if it be contrary to them, because there can be no doubt which of the two is in error,
God or you. I ask, then, does Scripture declare that you do hate? This is a
question of fact easily solved. Open the Bible. In the portraiture which it
traces of human nature, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans—a
portraiture which Scripture applies to heathens, Jews, and to all men, you
find the following traits:—“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without
understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful.”11 And in this other portrait which it draws, in the Epistle to
Titus, of unregenerate men, it paints them as “foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.”
These words astonish, and perhaps offend you; but place yourselves on
the elevated height of Gospel morality, and you will see that selfishness
conceals an element of hatred. The selfish man hates others, inasmuch as he
loves himself more than them; and if placed in the alternative of sacrificing
10
11
Matt. v. 21, 22.
Rom. i. 29, 30.
8
their interest or his own, theirs must give way. Does self-love, then, prevail
in the world? Does it prevail in your own heart? In the sentiments which
you entertain, I say not towards an enemy, or a rival, or a person indifferent
to you, but towards a friend, are you selfish? Do you love him more for
your own sake than for his? Does your affection grow cold when the trouble which it imposes upon you interferes with your tastes or interests? Do
you become, by change of position, of fortune, of political party, the enemy
of your friend? What do I say? Are you found to become austere, if not inimical, towards a friend, a wife, a child, because they have believed in Jesus Christ, and renounced the world to which you are still clinging? Do you
love, in short, with the feeling commonly understood by the term love, but
which philosophy calls self-esteem, and which God calls hatred? These are
questions having reference to those whom you love; and with respect to
those whom you do not love, those who are indifferent to you, rivals, or
enemies, do you hate them? Is there any hatred in your indifference? any of
it in your rivalships? any in your animosities?
Have you transgressed the spirit of the sixth commandment; have you
hated? Is there anyone here who hates his neighbour? Is there anyone here
who has never hated his neighbour? I pronounce no judgment. I only put
questions. I leave it to each individual to answer for himself.
If alarmed and troubled by what has been advanced; wondering that I
should have grounds for inquiring in solemn earnest, whether you are guilty
or not of murder, what will you think, when pursuing the development of
my text, I proceed to ask you, whether you are not guilty of another violation of the sixth commandment, more fatal than even murder itself?
You will not, I suppose, deny the following proposition. Of the two parts
of which man is constituted, the body is less precious than the soul, because
the body is to “return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken,” whilst
“the soul is to return to God who gave it,” and appear at the Judgment. The
death of the body, the passage to another existence, is less to be dreaded
than the death of the soul, which is eternal condemnation. Killing the body,
then, is committing a lesser injury to a man than killing his soul. Well, have
you committed this murder of the soul, this spiritual murder?
What is killing the soul? Learn it of Satan, who was a murderer from the
beginning, not only of the body but of the soul. God had said to Adam and
Eve, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Satan appeared to them, and said, “Ye shall not surely die.” They eat, and are condemned to death, temporal and eternal. Satan killed their souls by persuading them to fall into sin which brought forth death. Now if God afterwards
provided the means of deliverance for man under condemnation, so that his
soul should no longer die if he believed, Satan is no less the murderer of his
soul; for he is the author of condemnation and not of deliverance. Killing
9
the soul of anyone is doing to him what Satan has done to Adam and Eve; it
is causing him to fall into sin which produces death.
Have you destroyed a soul? Have you led anyone into sin? If you have
not encouraged him by your precepts, have you not at least led him into it
by your example? Have you by flattery nourished his pride, strengthened
his sinful desires by your compliance, excited his anger by your want of
temper, aroused his vengeance by your injustice, prevailed over his scruples by your laxity of principle, corrupted his sentiments by your licentious
conversation, shaken his faith by your doubts, checked his awakening piety
by your ridicule? In short, have you been the occasion of offence in any
manner to any individual?
Farther: have you been the occasion of offence in the most criminal
way? Have you been the occasion of offence to those very persons whose
souls the Almighty has entrusted to your keeping, as a sacred deposit for
which he will one day call you to account—your inferiors, your domestics,
your families? and to end with this most serious of all questions, have you
been a stumbling-block to your children? Have you allowed them to form
dangerous friendships? Have you put into their hands, or permitted them to
read, corrupting books, and shown them examples of sin? have you taught
them, by your indifference or levity, to forget the Lord, to neglect his service, to keep away from his holy Word, to forsake his worship? have you
taught them to seek what we term fortune, the approbation of man, and
worldly success, more than the forgiveness of God and eternal life, even at
the loss of that forgiveness and that life? Have you directly or indirectly, in
words or deeds, hindered them from surrendering their hearts to God, and
have you sided with the scoffing and profane world to keep them in unbelief, that is to say, in the broad path of perdition? Have you soured their
tempers by your impatience, inflated their self-love by injudicious praise,
tolerated their culpable tendencies, favoured their sensualities, encouraged
their idleness, smiled at their falsehoods, jested at their improprieties? The
world asks with levity and often in a tone which shows that it will not bestow a moment’s thought upon the matter: fathers and mothers, do you
spoil your children? But God asks it with the high and awful majesty of the
Holy of Holies, and with a voice which makes us feel that he will remember the question for ever: fathers and mothers, do you kill the souls of your
children?
Killing a soul is not only killing the soul of another, it is killing one’s
own soul; it is not only doing that which Satan did to the hurt of Adam, but
what Adam did to his own hurt. Have you destroyed your soul? Have you
followed Adam in his disobedience? Have you practised those works “the
wages of which is death?” Have you drawn on yourself the curse denounced against “every one that continueth not in all things which are writ10
ten in the book of the law to do them?”12
Have you transgressed the spirit of the sixth commandment? Have you
committed soul murder? Is there anyone here who has committed soul
murder? Is there anyone here who has not done so? I judge not. I pronounce
not. I only propose questions. I leave to each person the duty of answering
for himself.
In this successive interrogatory respecting all the varied applications of
the sixth commandment, graduating the terms in proportion as I reach from
one transgression of the commandment to another more serious, what terms
can I use when advancing a step higher? And yet there still remains one.
There remains still a possible violation of this commandment more odious
than all those of which I have yet spoken. There is still a question to be put
to you.
All the sins we have as yet enumerated relate to man. But killing a child
of man is a lesser crime than killing—whom? The Son of God, Jesus
Christ. It would be as impossible to depict the enormity of this murder as it
would be to describe the greatness of the victim. Jesus Christ, if you believe the Scriptures, is the Son of God, who has assumed our nature to rescue sinners from the damnation of hell, by suffering a hell for them. He is
the Word of God, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God.
He is the image of God, the glory of God, the wisdom of God, the justice of
God. He is the light, the door, the way, the truth, the life. He is the Father
of Eternity, the Prince of Peace, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; the
Creator of heaven and earth, the Lord our Righteousness, God with us.
What would killing him be? Who can find language to express this crime? I
cannot.
This, then, is my last question; tremblingly I ask it:—Have you killed the
Son of God? Do not exclaim at the exaggeration and extravagance of the
idea. This crime is possible, because it has been committed; possible to
men, because it has been committed by men.
Do you remember what the Son of God suffered from men? In his infancy his life is threatened by Herod, who, in order to cut him off with greater
certainty, massacres all the little children of an entire city. He lives in lowliness and poverty, not having a place where to lay his head. He is despised,
rejected, insulted, maligned. He is called Nazarene, Samaritan, Galilean,
Sinner, Sabbath-breaker, deceiver, liar, blasphemer, glutton, winebibber,
madman, devil. Behold him forsaken in his agony in Gethsemane by his
three favoured disciples, betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, forsaken by
all, delivered defenceless to false witnesses. A murderer is preferred to him.
His face is spit upon. He is buffeted. His eyes are bandaged. He is bound.
12
Gal. iii. 10.
11
He is scourged. He is clothed with a scarlet robe. He is crowned with
thorns, which are forced by the scourge into his bleeding forehead. He is
led to execution, bowing beneath the weight of his cross. He dies at length,
crucified between two malefactors; he dies, mocked by the Jews and Romans; mocked even to the end; mocked in his parching thirst; mocked in
his cry of agony; mocked in his last prayer. It was thus the Son of God was
killed; not only in the day of his death, but every day, from the beginning to
the end of his ministry; killed both in the letter and the spirit; persecuted,
tormented, murdered, hated, tempted, insulted, crucified; and by whom?—
by men; by what men? Could it be by you?
Those who crucified Jesus Christ are not only those Roman soldiers,
who fastened him to the cross, and who drove the nails into his hands and
feet; they are not only those Pharisees, who dragged him before Pilate, or
the people who cried, “Away with him! away with him! crucify him!”
Those persons crucified him according to the letter. But who have crucified
him according to the Spirit? Are they not those, who, by their sins, have
caused his death? This is the doctrine of St. Paul. For how else are we to
explain these words, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost,—if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance,
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an
open shame.”13 How do they “crucify” him? Not by their hands, but by
their sins; they identify themselves in spirit with his murderers, as if they
wished to renew their work of blood. Does this notion appear extraordinary
to you? I shall here institute a comparison, and suppose that you have
committed one of those crimes which human justice will punish with death;
that at the moment when you are about to suffer execution, a generous
friend comes forward and offers to suffer in your place; that his sacrifice is
accepted, that he dies for you, and that your life is spared. I ask you, have
you no part in the death of that man? and does not his blood speak as it
flows, to your conscience? Then I also ask you, have you no share in the
death of Jesus Christ, if you are of those for whom his blood has flowed?
At the foot of the cross of our Lord, the Roman soldiers parted his raiment
and cast lots for his robe. At the foot of that same cross I this day propose
another partition. Those sins, which at the moment were accumulated on
the Son of God; those sins which bent his august and sacred head under the
weight of his Father’s malediction; those sins which forced him to cry out,
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” those sins, in a word,
which crucified him; who are really chargeable with those lies, those
frauds, those thefts, those resentments, those calumnies, those backbitings,
13
Heb. vi. 4, 6.
12
those repinings, those sneers, those impurities? Come, and let each of you
distinguish that which belongs to himself in this humiliating and sad repartition of individual shares. What say you to this? Do you also find a portion to claim? Have you anything at all to do with the blood of this Just
One? Are you too amongst those enemies, whom he came to reconcile with
his Father, at the price of his life? Do you belong to that accursed race, in
whose name a prophet has said, “He was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon
him, and with his stripes we are healed.”14
Have you violated the spirit of the sixth commandment? Have you crucified the Son of God? Is there anyone here who has crucified the Son of
God? Is there anyone here who has not crucified the Son of God? I judge
not; I do not pronounce. I only put questions. I leave to each individual the
responsibility of answering for himself.
Does there remain to me any new application of the sixth commandment, any new question to address to you? No. This trait is the last. And
were there another, I should not have the courage to continue; I could not
go farther; I fail under the weight of my subject. I shall sum up with what
has been said, and conclude.
The whole of this discourse reduces itself to this question, Have you
broken the sixth commandment? First, Have you transgressed its letter?
Have you cut off, or in any manner shortened, the days of any fellowcreature? Secondly, Have you transgressed the spirit of the sixth commandment? And, in the first place, have you transgressed the spirit of the
sixth commandment by cherishing any of those feelings which may lead to
murder,—to hatred in particular? Secondly, Have you transgressed the spirit of the sixth commandment by killing a soul—that is, by leading it into
sin? And, finally: Have you violated the spirit of the sixth commandment
by crucifying the Son of God?
To all those questions I know not what will be your answer. This is
mine. To the first question, Yes; to the second, Yes; and to all the following
questions, even to the last, Yes. Yes; oh my Saviour, I am of that impious
race, who have laid a murderous hand upon thee; and when my salvation
was thy work, thy sufferings were caused by me! I am, in the sight of God,
a murderer. I have merited for my lot the burning lake of fire and brimstone, reserved for murderers.
One word more; I might take the ten commandments of God’s law successively, and question you upon each of them as I have done with the
sixth, which I have selected only because the transgression of it is least understood. I would ask you, Have you preferred other gods in the face of the
14
Isa. lv. 5.
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true God?—that is, have you been unfaithful to his service? Have you worshipped idols?—that is to say, have you loved the creature more than the
Creator? Have you taken the name of God in vain?—that is, have you pronounced it with irreverence? Have you desecrated the Sabbath?—that is,
have you carelessly observed the day of rest? Have you neglected to honour
your father and your mother?—that is, have you failed in respect or in obedience to them? Have you committed adultery—that is to say, is your heart
impure and carnal? Have you stolen?—that is, have you a selfish and an
unjust heart? Have you borne false witness?—that is, have you calumniated, slandered, lied, broken your word? Have you coveted?—that is,
have you an envious and jealous heart?
To all those questions I know not what will be your reply. This is mine.
To the first question, Yes; to the second, Yes; to the third., Yes; and even to
the last, Yes. I have broken all the commandments of my God, from the
first to the last; several in the letter, all in the spirit; I am not a better man
than Job, who said: “I cannot answer him one of a thousand.”15 I have deserved all the punishments denounced against the violation of all the commandments. I have deserved in this world a thousand deaths; and in the
world to come, I have deserved what is worse than a thousand deaths—
DEATH; that death which can neither be divided, nor multiplied, nor increased, nor diminished; that death, which is one, single, infinite, eternal.
Hell has not torments too painful nor too enduring for the punishment of
my sins. I have been condemned to it, I know the way to it, and I have a
long time walked in it.
If you cannot unite with me in these responses; if your answer to all
these questions be No; if you have kept the commandments of God, both
according to the letter and the spirit; if you are neither a murderer nor an
idolater, nor a Sabbath-breaker, nor carnal, nor anything, in short, that I am,
it is not for you that I preach. You have no need of me. You neither want
the Bible nor Jesus Christ. You think yourselves righteous, holy, free from
danger, worthy of heaven. What can be said to you?
But if there be anyone here whose state resembles mine; if there be anyone here who knows himself, were it for the first time in his life, to be sinful, condemned, lost, cursed of God,—let him rejoice. It is for him, for him
especially, that the voice has gone forth from heaven and still proceeds
from every page of the Bible—grace! grace! grace! but only for the guilty;
salvation, but only for him who is lost; eternal life, the kingdom of Jesus
Christ, but for him only who is on the path of eternal death, and in the
kingdom of Satan. A grace, not a grace to be merited, but a free grace; not a
grace to come, but a grace prepared before the beginning of the world; not a
15
Job ix. 3.
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grace which is of works, but a grace which is a grace? Yes, the blood of
Christ cleanseth from all sin. Come, then, my poor partner in sin and misery, let us together plunge into “the fountain opened in Jerusalem for sin
and for uncleanness.” Then “though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” I
might say more to you; but he who believes himself lost quickly finds a
better instructor. It is no longer for me to ask him questions; it is for him to
ask this question of the Word of God: “What shall I do to be saved?”—a
question which always receives, nay carries within itself its own answer:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
O God of our Lord Jesus Christ, I send him to thee! Thou Shepherd of
souls, I present to thee this wearied and heavy-laden soul! Give him peace.
Thou wilt give him peace. His anguish and terrors remove my apprehensions on his account. If he be convinced of sin and perdition, it is because
thy Spirit has began to speak to him; and if thy Spirit speaks to him, to
whom will it guide him but to thee, to thee the Christ, the Son of the living
God; to thee, who “hast the words of eternal life;” to thee, “the Lamb of
God who takest away the sins of the world;” on whom we lay hold by faith
and as the only hope of our life, to find thee in heaven as the only joy of
our eternity. Amen.
15